Wenger: intelligence suggests Cole will stay

Arséne Wenger believes Ashley Cole's future is at Arsenal despite the player's comments in publicity for his autobiography that he was made a 'scapegoat' and 'hung out to dry' by the club during the tapping-up affair with Chelsea last season. The Arsenal manager expects Cole to stay loyal to his present employers.

'He has two years to go,' said Wenger referring to the player's contract. 'The most important thing is that he comes back like everyone else and that he can work hard for the team. I haven't seen the book and I haven't read it so it's hard to comment.

'For a player to go somewhere there are three parties involved: the player and two clubs. At the moment there is nothing concrete except newspaper talk. I think the club has had a great influence on his career and it's always part of the intelligence of the player to see who has helped him in life and I think Ashley is intelligent.'

Meanwhile, Cole and Cheryl Tweedy managed to hoodwink the media about the location of their much-hyped wedding yesterday.

Staff at Highclere Castle, where the glamour model Katie Price, known as Jordan, married the singer Peter André late last year, admitted that they had agreed to take part in a deliberate charade to keep journalists away.

A security guard at the castle said that when word got out that the wedding had been booked at Highclere, Arsenal footballer Cole switched to another venue, but asked the Earl of Carnarvon, owner of the castle, not to deny that Highclere was still the venue.

Mystery surrounds a statement criticising Aston Villa chairman Doug Ellis, purported to be written by the first-team squad, after the club claimed to have spoken to senior players who denied any involvement.

The statement heavily criticised Ellis's lack of ambition and focused on cutbacks, claiming that the players had had to club together to pay for a masseur and that, for example, a physio travelling on club business had been refused an expenses claim for a cup of coffee bought while waiting at an airport.

But Phil Mepham, Villa's head of media, said: 'Once the "story" broke, I spoke to several senior members of the first-team squad, all of whom had no knowledge of the statement. All of them were surprised at its content. So to suggest this is a collective statement is ridiculous.'

An unnamed player backed up Mepham, telling the Birmingham Mail: 'We knew nothing about this statement. It simply doesn't exist.'

Edwin van der Sar is expected to be offered a one-year contract extension by Manchester United. Sir Alex Ferguson is keen to retain the 35-year-old Holland goalkeeper despite his interest in signing Tomasz Kuszczak from West Brom.

'Edwin has one more year left on his contract and we are looking to give him another one,' said Ferguson. 'We have to pay attention to his age and it depends on how he does next season but he was a terrific addition to our squad last year. His form was superb.'

Hull have completed the £300,000 signing of Wales defender Sam Ricketts from Swansea. The 24-year-old, who has won eight caps for his country, becomes manager Phil Parkinson's third signing since his arrival at the KC Stadium, following the capture of defender Michael Turner and midfielder Dean Marney from Brentford and Tottenham respectively.

Celtic's Stephen Pearson is set to team up again with his former Motherwell boss Billy Davies. The Derby manager is believed to have made an offer of about £600,000.

Makhtar N'Diaye has joined Rangers on a one-year deal. The 24-year-old has been offered the contract after impressing during a two-week trial period. The Senegal midfielder, who was in the squad for the 2002 World Cup, previously played under Ibrox manager Paul Le Guen at French club Rennes. N'Diaye has become Le Guen's fifth major signing of the summer, following Libor Sionko, Karl Svensson, Lionel Letizi and Jeremy Clement.

Real Madrid's Brazil striker Ronaldo has had a minor operation on a knee but should be back in training by the end of the month.